Wednesday, July 11, 2007

It is my fervent wish that Tony Jones exposes The Great Global Warming Swindle as a hoax and fraud on ABC TV after the documentary viewing at 8:30. He is a thorough and dogged interviewer and I hope he takes Martin Durkin to task.

It looks like he might.

The ANU's Dr Janette Lindesay and Professor Malcolm McCulloch, along with their Stanford University colleague, Professor Robert Dunbar, will address the scientific flaws in the claims of climate change sceptics at the public forum on Friday titled Debunking The Great Global Warming Swindle.

The forum will focus on claims that global warming is not due to greenhouse gas emissions but other natural causes.

Respected journal The New Scientist has also re-issued a guide to climate change myths and misconceptions it put together earlier this year, when The Great Global Warning Swindle was aired in the UK.

"Despite the claims made in The Great Global Warming Swindle, there is now an overwhelming amount of evidence that the world is warming, and that this warming is due to increased levels of greenhouse gases caused by human activity," said the journal.

One of the so-called experts on the ABC's panel that will debate climate change is retired James Cook University professor Bob Carter.

Professor Carter, whose background is in marine geology, appears to have little, if any, standing in the Australian climate science community.

He is on the research committee at the Institute of Public Affairs, a think tank that has received funding from oil and tobacco companies, and whose directors sit on the boards of companies in the fossil fuel sector.

Maybe it is a good thing the TGGWS is being shown on ABC TV. Their promo website message board is getting a workout, 800 messages in two days. Most of them indicate the public have a reasonable, layman's grasp of the science, and a sense that oil companies are behind the manufacture of the denial industry.

ABC TV came under renewed pressure today about its decision to air a misleading and scientifically flawed climate change documentary, with the Australian National University holding a forum to debunk the program.

...rumours circulate about editorial in-fighting at the ABC about the UK documentary, The Great Global Warming Swindle, that will air tomorrow night.

In what appeared to be a defensive reaction to initial criticism from scientists of the decision to air the film, ABC TV asked Lateline presenter Tony Jones to interview the film maker, MartinDurkin, and to lead a panel discussion about climate change.

Jones' interview raises questions about Durkin's use of statistics and graphics, and his omission of more recent research contradicting the claims made in the film.